once had wordperfect 8 for linux. It may have been removed for legal reasons as it was proprietary software some 10 years ago, or so, when Corel, sadly, apparently abandoned linux.

I wonder how hard it would be to put it back, but now in the 5.9 repository?

If too hard, no need as Kword does a pretty good job reading and writing to wordperfect files. However, the corel disk was quite a bit better. I have been using the corel WP for quite a while (problem loading and then finding libm.so.5 every time I install it). But my CD is getting old (as am I) and now says "unexpected end of file" when I tar -zxvf it.

I, too, have an ancient Corel WordPerfect CD, fully licensed. It will *NEVER* run on a modern Linux distro. It was written for systems with a 2.0.x kernel and libc5. I did manage to keep it going so long as the 2.2.x kernels were the thing. libc5 can be installed side by side with glibc, which replaced libc5 around 1998 or so. Once the 2.4.x kernels came along there were just too many incompatabilities. It wouldn't run. I can't imagine that you'd have any luck getting it going with a 2.6.x kernel.

Sorry, but that was then and this is now. WordPerfect was important when the closest thing we had to a functional OpenSource word processor was maxwell. Nowadays there is no good reason to run it. Both AbiWord and OpenOffice can read or write WordPerfect documents. For it to work with AbiWord you need to have libwpd and abiword-plugins installed.

Uelsk8s: Naturally I was surprised and curious about what you posted. The FAQ in question hasn't been updated in about four years. I'd be really curious to know if you or anyone else has actually made WP8 work with a modern Linux distro. I'll gladly eat my words above if the answer is "yes". I'd love to be proven wrong on this one

Did VL have explicit permission to redistribute back in 2000 when VL 1.8 was current? If so, what were the terms? Do you still effectively have permission? If it could be made to work could it, in theory, be legally repackaged for later VL versions? These are more curious questions than anything else. I'd be surprised, albeit pleasantly, if someone really makes it function on VL 5.9 or VL 6.0.

Another old, proprietary piece of software I have is Civilization: Call To Power. Freeciv has advanced enough that there really isn't any reason to run the commercial version anymore but it **bothers** me that software I actually paid for doesn't work on a current distro. (CivCTP works fine with a 2.4.x kernel but not 2.6.x IME.)

Don't get me going. Next thing you know I'll be trying to package NCSA Mosaic, maxwell, etc... I did do mlvwm (MacOS 8 desktop look-alike) for VL 5.9 and that was kind of a neat thing.

Mmmmm I picked up a copy of Wordperfect for Linux as part of Wordperfect for Linux for Dummies that was remaindered in a book sale... not installed it for years but the disk is fine. Often wondered if I should try but I guess from what has been said here it is too ancient to use!

However, though wplinux started on typing ./xwp (root and non-root), it died after showing the WP startup page, giving a "segmentation fault" error. This error is discussed in paragraph 3.3 of http://linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/ and I tried that fix (running unset LD_PRELOAD) right before ./xwp, but it didn't help.

I suspect Caitlyn is correct. However, one thing I would like to try but don't know how is this:

"Don't forget to ensure the libraries' directories are listed in /etc/ld.so.conf, and then re-run /sbin/ldconfig."

There is no /etc/ld.so.conf on my system and though I could add one, I don't know how to list the libraries' directories in it.

Thanks to everyone for their input. About half the lawyers in Nevada still use WP and I get those files all the time. One of the best things about Word Perfect is its backward compatibility. I still have the WP6 dos disks. I might try them on dosemu if I can't get wplinux to work.

I tried the free version of WordPerfect 8 for Linux many years ago when Linux word processors were far behind where they are today. The free version had MANY deficiencies. It didn't conform to what you'd expect of an X application. It didn't use the system-installed fonts and you had to use a WordPerfect installer to get any fonts but what it came with--but that installer was not available for the free download version. The printing used its own system, just as the old DOS version did. Once you got it installed, the screen was exceptionally ugly, even for the time. It was just a mess and unpleasant to use. I can't fathom why anyone would want to use it now. There are now WordPerfect filters available for Linux word processors such as OOo 3, and it would be far better to use those instead of this ancient, creaky program.

If you can find a copy of WP8 that someone paid for, at least you might be able to add more fonts. But the free version deserves to rest in peace.--GrannyGeek

I agree with GrannyGeek. I do have the paid version and I had Corel Draw! for OS/2 which had a ton of Type 1 fonts which I added to WP8. That gave me decent fonts but the look and feel was still pretty ugly and printing was as Granny describes unless you sent everything to "Passthru Postscript" which allowed you to use lpr. (This was before cups, folks, as in way before.) Oh, and nobody seems to mention that it used to crash every once in a while for no reason I could ever figure out.

Anyway, my only interest in getting it going again would be as a challenge to see if it could be done. I did try this with a 2.4.x kernel and got nowhere.